THE Saipan Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday announced that it will not host another gubernatorial debate.
The Independent team of Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang said they would agree to another debate if Republican Gov. Ralph DLG Torres would respond to questions under oath.
Asked for comment, the governor said, “Sure.”
But in a media statement on Wednesday, the chamber noted that no prior debate it has hosted, nor any other similar debate in the U.S., required participation while under oath.
Chamber Executive Director Kimberly C. Camacho said they have “a duty to remain non-partisan,” adding that they have been conducting gubernatorial debates through all these years.
The AD camp said the previous debate hosted by the chamber “completely excluded any question on the number one issue in this campaign which is government corruption.”
For its part, the chamber said it has “worked hard to uphold complete professionalism and the integrity of a fair and impartial debate structure for the last six gubernatorial debates, and we can provide yet another for this runoff election cycle, should both candidates wish to participate.”
In a statement on Tuesday evening, the Republican camp noted that Palacios earlier stated that he was willing to debate Torres “anytime, anywhere.”
The governor has said that he and his running mate, Senate Floor Leader Vinnie F. Sablan, wanted to debate their Independent opponents.
But on Tuesday, the AD camp stated, “The time to debate has passed. We already had one debate sponsored by the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and a forum sponsored by the ASNMC and everything that had to be said has been said.”
According to the governor in a statement on Tuesday evening, “If Arnold and David cannot commit an hour of their time to share their plans on bolstering the economy, protecting the environment, or improving the lives of our people, it simply means they have none.”
At a press conference on the same day, Torres said: “I think it’s definitely beneficial to have a debate where everyone hears what the [candidates] will do, what [they have] done, and what [they] will continue to do. There is value to a debate.”
His running mate, Senate Floor Leader Vinnie F. Sablan, said, “Our people deserve to hear our leaders and our candidates articulate the issues and articulate the solutions they have in their plans and their platform. That’s what the debate is. A debate is not for candidates to see who’s beating who. It’s to give the chance to our people to listen so that they can make a sound decision who they want to vote for.”
He added, “If a debate happens, we are going to articulate issues that are before the CNMI…and the answers that we give will be used against us when we serve, so that’s going to be the reference [the people] are going to use. We can’t just have it on paper; we want to listen to it.”
“When I wasn’t a candidate,” he said, “I always wanted to listen to my candidates and I wanted to hear them…. I wanted to see what their plans were, what their solutions were, and how they could articulate that…so that I could measure the knowledge that they had about the issues concerning our Commonwealth. That’s really the importance of the debate. I was ready and I’ve been ready to debate, and show our Commonwealth and our people that these are things that are happening and this is what we’re going to put forth.”
